Portsmouth Company Wins Prestigious Manufacturing Award

Left to right – Rob Harvey of UKTI presenting the award to Anne Stephenson, Business Systems Manager at Harwin and Alex Strothers, Business Development Manager at Harwin, together with event compere Wendy Gibson.

South West winners announced in the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards 2011

Harwin has been announced as the winner of the EEF South West Region Outstanding Export Award sponsored by UKTI, in a ceremony held at the @Bristol conference venue.

The Portsmouth based company is an electronic components manufacturer of surface mount Printed Circuit Board hardware, high reliability connectors and board to board connector systems. The company won the award for developing and producing a range of circuit board hardware that simplifies the Printed Circuit Board manufacturing process and reduces installed process costs for users. It has produced a unique product range that has benefits for customers operating in all market sectors worldwide.

The annual awards are hosted by EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, and recognise excellence in enterprise, innovation, environmental performance and skills development among UK manufacturers.

Paul Knight, South West Region Director for EEF, commented: "Manufacturing in the South West is vitally important as an economic driver for the UK with over 11,500 manufacturing businesses contributing £12.5billion to the local economy. Companies like Harwin are leading the way by strengthening their brand position and increasing sales of all their products in all locations worldwide. Congratulations to them on winning this award."

Russell Jones, Regional Director for the South West region of UKTI, said: "The EEF shares our commitment to promote the benefits of overseas trade to manufacturing firms. I hope these awards show exporting in the South West is alive and well.

"There are great opportunities abroad for engineering companies and this well-deserved award shows what the benefits for companies can be.

"I very much hope other firms in the region follow Harwin’s example and move into foreign markets."

About EEF

EEF, the manufacturers' organization, is the representative voice of manufacturing in the UK together with UK Steel. EEF has a growing membership of over 6,000 companies of all sizes, employing some 900,000 people from every sector of engineering, manufacturing, engineering construction and technology-based industries.